Form and Transformation in the Middle Ages
The 25th Annual New England Medieval Studies Consortium Graduate Student Conference will take place at Brown University on Saturday, 1 March, 2008. By bringing together scholars with varied interests, the conference encourages dialogue across disciplines.
This year’s conference will engage with the issues of form and transformation. Johann Huizinga argues that for the medieval citizen, “Every event, every action, was still embodied in expressive and solemn forms, which raised them to the dignity of a ritual. For it was not merely the great facts of birth, marriage and death which, by the sacredness of the sacrament, were raised to the rank of mysteries; incidents of less importance, like a journey, a task, a visit, were equally attended by a thousand formalities: benedictions, ceremonies, formulae.” This conference will consider what forms of knowledge, metaphysics, art, and politics circulated throughout the medieval world and will explore how those forms functioned as engines of cultural transformation and were themselves subject to transformation.
We invite graduate students from all fields to submit abstracts that address an aspect of form and transformation from Late Antiquity through the late Middle Ages. Contributors are encouraged to interpret this theme broadly. Papers addressing transformations in the critical approaches to medieval scholarship, its pedagogical traditions, and its technologies. We also welcome papers addressing transformations in the critical approaches to medieval scholarship, its pedagogical traditions, and the technologies of presentation and critique.
Abstracts for a 15-20 minute paper should be e-mailed to Nora Martin Peterson at Medieval_Conference@brown.edu. Abstracts should not exceed 300 words. In addition to the abstract, please include a one-page personal statement or Curriculum Vitae, with full contact information and a tentative indication of any audiovisual equipment required for your presentation. The deadline for abstract submission is Thursday, November 1st, 2007. Participants will be notified by December 1st. Abstracts of accepted papers will be made available on the conference web site.
Limited accommodations may be available for students traveling long distances.
Click here for CALL FOR PAPERS
More information, including a full schedule of events and information about our keynote speaker, will be coming soon.